Where Gas Prices Are Highest

Think the US has it bad with its "soaring" gas price, which is now back to $3.75 per gallon? Think again. Here, courtesy of Bloomberg, is a list of the countries whose gasoline cost puts what Americans pay at the pump to shame. In order of descending gas prices, below are the 20 places in the world where one does not want to "fill 'er up."

Norway is the only major oil producer with expensive gas. In the last quarter, the world's most valued gas got even pricier.

A strike over pensions by Norwegian energy workers reduced oil output by 15 percent and threatened to shut down production altogether before the government intervened. The strike, which lasted from June 24 to July 9, cost the government and companies $508 million, according to the Norwegian Oil Industry Association.

Norwegians pay the most of any nationality to fill up their tanks. That's because instead of subsidizing fuel at the pump, the country uses its oil profits for services such as free college education and savings for infrastructure improvements.

Resource-rich Norwegians absorb the high prices with relative ease. The average daily income is $272. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 3.7 percent.

Turkey is a fast-growing economy and the largest in Eastern Europe, but the high price of gas takes a bite out of family budgets. The average daily income for Turks is $30, and it takes 32 percent of an average day's wages to buy a gallon of gas.

The country has one of the world's highest gas taxes, which accounts for more than half of the cost to fuel up. Tax collection has long been a struggle for the government. They make up for it now through consumption taxes, like the fuel tax, which are relatively easy to enforce.

About 40 percent of the country's workers are part of an informal economy that pays no taxes. Only about 4 percent of the total population pays personal income tax.

Surrounded by oil producers in the Middle East, Israel itself drills very little. Gasoline prices are controlled by the government, and taxes typically make up about half the cost of a gallon.

Gas prices have led to widespread discontent and political demonstrations over the cost of living. Prime Minister Netanyahu has intervened to prevent prices from rising with the global price of oil, most recently when he lowered price 2.9 percent on June 1, according to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources.

While the country taxes gas, it simultaneously subsidizes oil. Israel paid about $565 million in subsidies in 2010, a relatively small contribution to the world's $409 billion in global fossil-fuel subsidies.

The average daily income in Israel is $87, and it takes 11 percent of an average day's wages to buy a gallon of gas.

Hong Kong is a part of China but has its own constitution, its own political structure and its own price of gas. Hong Kong residents pay 76 percent more for a gallon of gas than their neighbors in China, where the government caps the price at the pump.

Still, with their higher urban incomes, drivers in Hong Kong feel less pain at the pump than Chinese drivers do. The average daily income in Hong Kong is $99, and the share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 8.7 percent.

Netherlands has the most bicycles per capita in the world. Rows upon rows of them stand parked at train stations, museums and national parks. A vast infrastructure of bike paths and lanes, tunnels and traffic signals makes cycling easy to adopt.

The average daily income in the Netherlands is $131. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 6.3 percent.

Denmark's high gas prices haven't drastically reduced the country's consumption. Danes still rank among the top quarter of the world's gas gluttons.

They can afford the higher price, with a comfortable pain-at-the-pump ranking of 47 out of 60. The average daily income is $157. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 5.2 percent.

Gas prices have been a shock to the home country of Ferrari and Lamborghini, where the rate of car ownership is among the world's highest. Demand for cars has fallen to its lowest level since 1979, according to Fiat SpA. The Turin-based company said on Aug. 2 that it's temporarily halting new investments in Italy.

Italy raised gas taxes about 25 percent over the past year as part of Prime Minister Mario Monti's austerity efforts to rein in the country's budget. The tax is now the highest in Europe.

Italy's gasoline consumption dropped 6.9 percent in June, compared with a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Economic Development. The average daily income is $93. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 8.8 percent.

Sweden paid about $2.71 billion to subsidize oil in 2010. Amid declines in daily wages, the amount of time Swedes had to work in order to afford a gallon of gas climbed by 4.3 percent in the last quarter.

The average daily income in Sweden is $158. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 5.1 percent.

High summer gas prices in the U.K. have pinched consumer spending and reduced fuel consumption. Gasoline sales fell 2.2 percent in June from a month earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The average daily income in the U.K. is $106. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 7.4 percent.

The average retail price for gas among EU nations receded from record highs set earlier this summer, according to European Commission data. Price declines in France, Spain and Italy exceeded the 7.8 percent average decline of the Bloomberg Gas Price Ranking.

France has the 11th-most-expensive gas, despite generous government subsidies -- more than $3 billion in 2010. The average daily income in France is $117. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 6.7 percent.

The average daily income is $123. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 6.3 percent.

European car sales have shrunk for nine consecutive months, and truck demand is down for the last five, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. The group forecasts that passenger car sales in the EU will shrink 7 percent this year to 12.2 million vehicles, the weakest demand since 1995.

Pictured is the Notre Dame Church in Dinant, nestled between the Meuse River and the towering walls of the Citadel. The Citadel fortification was first constructed in 1051.

A German driver filling the 55-liter (14.5-gallon) tank of Europe's most popular car, Volkswagen's Golf hatchback, pays $112.23, compared with $54.38 for the same fill-up in the U.S. The average cost of gasoline at the pump in Europe is more than double the price in the U.S.

The average daily income in Germany is $116. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 6.6 percent.

Portugal's 13 percent gas-price drop was one of the world's steepest. The amount of time a Portuguese had to work in order to afford a gallon of gas declined by 4.6 percent in the last quarter.

The price of gas in Portugal varies by region, and drivers can get discounts while buying groceries at several national supermarket chains. Portugal's Directorate General of Energy and Geology maintains a website showing the cheapest places to fill up across the country.

The average daily income in Portugal is $56. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 14 percent.

Switzerland ranks among the world's top 10 percent of gasoline consumers per capita. The Swiss maintain some green credentials with a carbon dioxide emissions rate that is less than half the average of other high-income OECD countries.

The average daily income is $215. The share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 3.6 percent.

Japan's long-held national gasoline tax helped the country's carmakers take an early lead in developing fuel-efficient vehicles.

The aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami last year contributed to higher gas prices. Still, the average daily income is $128, and the share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is just 5.6 percent.

Attention to gas prices has dramatically waned as a presidential campaign theme after the price of gasoline declined for 14 straight weeks after peaking in April.

Americans have little to complain about. They pay less than half the European price for gasoline and $1.15 per gallon below the world average. The U.S. price is among the world's lowest, and Americans have high average incomes. Only five nations have less pain at the pump than the U.S. does, and four of them are members of OPEC.

The U.S. paid about $4.2 billion in 2010 to subsidize oil production and consumption. Gasoline taxes account for just 11 percent of the retail price of the fuel, compared with 60 percent in Britain.

The average daily income in the U.S. is $136, and the share of a day's wages needed to buy a gallon of gas is 2.8 percent.

Nothing free about a high tax society. Gas tax, VAT tax, income tax- you are paying for it and yet it still isn't enough, they are all bankrupt. Then you cram austerity down their throats, making sure the wealthy class remains protected. "Free" is such a ridiculous term.

Tough reality a US citizen middle class is not willing to cope with...

Ah, ah, but the AnAnonymousistic theory of US middle class monarchy indicates that the middle class is the king class. Your statements here are trying to square the circle and, as is your habit when spewing bullshit, failing miserably.

When US citizens start to talk about contradictions, one has to pay attention.

How does the fact that the middle class is the king class in US citizenism go against the inability to cope with reality?

People claiming liberty as an unalienable human right and keeping slaves, that is contradictory.
People claimingproperty as an unalienable human right and going on a robbing spree, that is contradictory.

According to AnAnonymous, even full blooded Cherokees are US citizenism citizens. Because they were born in the US of A, they are just as responsible for the slavery as were the slaveholders, they are complicit in the violation of every treaty the US government made with the original American nations, and they are thieves who stole the land of the original American nations, including that of (you knew this was coming) the Cherokee nation.

You see, even though I'm a mongrel mix, from both sides of my family, of Native American citizenism citizens and various European citizenism citizens that immigrated to the US of A after the civil war, by the reasoning of AnAnonymous, I am as guilty of slavery as any slaveholder. This is because I was born in the US of A, and that is the only factor which matters.

But hey, my eternal nature is calling, so I'm off to farm the weak and extort the poor. Or is it extort the weak and farm the poor? I suppose I should do both, since running afoul of my eternal nature might put me in a different tax bracket..

"AnAnonymous" is not a Chinese speaker, a few days back, here on ZH, a person trained in speech pattern recognition, (I don't know if they were US intelligence or not!) asserted that by a study of Ananonymous's postings they were, confidently?, able to identify him as a Professor of English literature at an East Coast Ivy league institution.

He is just showing off his superior intelligence by driving you into turmoil as he laughs, and makes notes, for the lecture series on gullibility he has planned!

Exactly. North American cities and towns are designed around the automobile, while European cities mostly predate the automobile and are less dependant on them. It would have been nice if the list included per capita consumption of gas or average amount of daily miles driven.

But...let's keep pouring tens of billions of dollars into FTA funded Transit Projects that enable people to more readily live 30 to 50 miles away from where they work everyday so we can waste MORE energy (not save energy...WASTE energy) transporting their ever increasing girth back and forth to work everyday. Our system is completely backwards. In the meantime...inner cities collapse as we subsidize lengthy commutes and promote class segregation. Abolish the FTA!!

Sure, they may not be able to afford having a car due to the cost of gas and vehicle registration fees, and they might be unemployed due to the slumping European economy, and there is no guarantee that the pension will be there after most of the population retires and nobody is left to pay taxes - but, as they are riding public transportation from the housing projects filled with people who don't speak the local language, to the local free government health clinic (did I mention that it was free?), to wait in line to meet with a bureaucrat who will inform them, good news!, the wait list is only three months long, they'll have three months of waiting and watching tellie and filling out employment applications to marvel in the superiority of their culture over the U.S.

As a matter of fact, in the latest polls the Socialist Party has a big lead. The real socialists mind you, not the "social democrats" or something, this is a party from the 70s which has maoist roots. And it is a real revolution in Dutch politics, let me tell you. The populists are losing ground and the old established parties as well. The problem is that the electorate is so divided that forming a working coalition is akin to black magic. Most likely the very same parties that have been in power since WW2 in various combinations, and that a lot of people are totally fed up with, hence the unprecedented SP gains, will join together and form a coalition with the help of some small fry. Most likely, nothing will change, people will get even more fed up, and then probably we'll have elections again in another two years...

BTW, a lot of people believe that these polls are manipulated to scare people with socialism so that they'll vote for one of the established parties. Then there's a party called the "democrats", D66, which is basically a bag of air, but totally pro non-democratic Europe and which would like nothing better than to abolish the Netherlands today and go full monty Europe. This party is practically guaranteed to be in the next government, be it left or right, and that is going to piss off a lot of people. Interestingly enough, the leader of D66 attended the latest Bilderberg, together with our PM. Apparently, Queen Beatrix got him this invitation. Make no mistake, she has a lot of power.

You obviously get your facts from the MSM. Before spouting off that bs, you might consider doing a bit of research to see if there's any truth to it. I'll help you out because you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. In spite of Americans paying more for healthcare than the citizens of any other industrialized nation, America doesn't even rank on the top 10 healthiest countries in the world. The reasons the waits are shorter (on average) is because most Americans cannot afford healthcare to begin with. I suppose if you prefer to keep your fellow Americans unhealthy so that your lines will be shorter then that's your call. Of course it would make you an idiot, because your tax dollars will still go to treating many of those people, only the cost will be much higher due to the fact that the ailments weren't addressed until they became major conditions.

First accusing others to get their facts from the MSM, and then stating something brainwashed as:

In spite of Americans paying more for healthcare than the citizens of any other industrialized nation, America doesn't even rank on the top 10 healthiest countries in the world.

You feel entitled to have the live in the healthiest nation, as we pay the most for healthcare?Might other things play a role in our nation's health ranking than just it's healthcare?Maybe our healthcare is very good, but with poor efficiency? What could be the reason for that?

You might want to look at the debt your scandinavian governments have. Hundreds of billions of it. Balanced budgets mean absolutely nothing if there is spending off budget. Please step away from the MSM filter.

Debt as a percentage of GDP is not the only measurement of debt. You might try looking at all external debt- wikipedia by country- they all have debt in excess of 500 billion. It is usually manipulated in many ways and rarely concerns itself with the ugly numbers.

try reviewing that link with just a teensy bit more of your attention paid to detail, then take a stab at identifying what negative debt on a government's balance sheet is otherwise known as, regardless of what variable the figure is a percentage of.

as for personal debt: it's a well documented fact that relatively higher incomes can support relatively higher debtloads.

we should be GLAD to pay in a thousand other ways and a thousand other taxes to get

endless overseas militarism, bankster handouts,

student indebtedness, and a crumbling infrastructure!

High gas prices for what ?!!

Norwegians pay the most of any nationality to fill up their tanks. That's because instead of subsidizing fuel at the pump, the country uses its oil profits for services such as free college education and savings for infrastructure improvements.

I always wondered though if reducing the speed of the burn improved energy extraction by allowing better energy transfer into expansion as opposed to impact, and might improve mileage at the same time. But it's a mental image of how the chemistry must proceed inside a moving container, and has no anchor in a science that is not my field.

The Hemispherical cylinder head improves efficiency by starting the combustion at the apex of the hemisphere and allowing the expansion to spread evenly across and into the cylinder. As opposed to starting in one corner of a traditional flat cylinder head. Im not sure if reducing the speed would improve it any. I have wondered why all engines dont have hemispherical cylinder heads.

Well, yes of course, but its meaningless....these other countries are not the same conditions as the US, as most of these countries arent much bigger than a state in the US, and they dont have to commute 50 or 100 miles to work each day. Taxes are the main reason for higher prices elsewhere, so saying 'americans have little to complain about' is like telling someone with a fatal stab wound it could be worse, at least your legs arent broken.

The cost of gas is a nebulous at best. Let's remove the taxes from the cost of gas and then do a comparison. Americans have little to complain about because they don't pay a ridiculous amount for taxes.

US gas is also spiked with cheap ethanol creating an artificial low-point while at the same time boosting ethanol ratings... while hilariously enough are unique to the US and there is no easy way to convert them to a standard #RON figure.

Well, not quite, ethanol is not free. However the ethanol is an octane booster that can turn 80 into 88. You can see this via various websites out there where individuals document removing the ethanol from their gas. The truth of the matter is also that ethanol ABSORBS water, it just sucks it in. Those times you got "bad gas"? Yep, it was water. You are paying for water in there as well. Ethanol gas also breaks down quicker. And the hilarious part is that anyone who does considerable driving and documents their gas and miles is able to show that they are getting considerably less MPG to the point where it costs more than they are "saving" with cheap gasahol. Newer cars are designed to compensate for this, that's true enough. However who the hell has money to actually buy new cars anymore?

This entirely ignores the fact that it costs more in energy to seed, grow, harvest, convert and deliver that ethanol than it even produces in the end. Therein lies the real problem. It's a massive subsidy that's paid for via indirect means and thus masks the true price. With 40% of the projected harvest destined for ethanol (by law) and with the massive crop failures, sure ethanol is going up, but so are food prices, which, if it were not for ethanol being mandated would have been essentially a non-issue.

It makes sense when it's a net-gain, but growing fuel on agricultural land is a stupid stupid stupid idea always. In China it's been more or less shut down, as it provided zero net benefit in terms of pollution. The ethanol which IS produced, is limited in scope to high net-gain crops of zero impact to the food markets being grown on lands which have zero value to actual agriculture.

The other thing we are doing right here (despite everyone bitching about it) is the government regulated pricing scheme. Our prices stay lower longer and higher longer, but they are slower to move, with pricing changes announced in advance. There is some flexibility for gas stations to set their own pricing, but it's a narrow band. At most it's about a 3 cent per gallon variance within the city depending on full/self-serve pre-buying credit, promotions, what have you. Hell, they don't even bother putting the prices up on billboards, because it really does not matter. Not having to deal with the stupidity of driving 10 miles to get "cheap gas", no stupidity of the classic "gas stations on all corners of an intersection", and I have NEVER, not even once gotten a "bad tank" of gas here. The worst thing that might happen is getting shortchanged by modified pumps, but they are typically associated with stations that are "too good to be true" in terms of the gimmicks they offer.

Anywho, ethanol is a giant scam, cheap gas is an illusion and someone with more time and resources than myself should really go do a full cost-analysis of what gas is REALLY costing, complete with converting the ratings in the US to standard RON values, taking into account subsidies to agriculture, ethanol prices, etc. etc. It really is an insideous beast, and that's probably half design, half coincidence to be honest. The absolute reliance on gas in the US is laughable, seriously. Over here, gas goes up, we just take the subway and buses more, doesn't matter much. In the US, gas hits $5 a gallon and suddenly driving to that mcjob is resulting in an operating deficit.

I'd like to see a real table with total volume purchases to get a feel of the total spend on gasoline, not a trivial "Amalfi Coast" flyover travelogue. It only stands to reason that big bulk producers and big bulk consumers see lower prices. Small, highly urbanised nations would likely see higher per unit prices on fundamentals.

Those numbers are highly misleading. Most of those countries are densely populated with public transport. The vast majority do not drive anywhere near as much as Americans do. A better comparison would be percentage of average wages spent on petrol every month. That would come out quite different.

This is why the US is much more vulnerable to oil price shocks than, say, Switzerland.

CLUELESS ANALYSIS and USELESS REPORTING! Not one of these countries citizens spend anywhere near the amount American do on gas, because they haven't designed an entire lifestyle of incessantly around driving huge vehicles back and forth to suburbs over an hour from their jobs. These other countries have designed their cities/towns so you don't NEED a car. Public transport, denser towns, much more intricate rail systems...very few places in US have this.

I know we "love" our car culture here, but the fact that most people literally cannot buy their groceries or get to work without a car is going to drive us into the ditch.

So you see, it doesn't matter if it costs $10.02 a gallon in Norway, because Norwegians use their cars for much much shorter distances and their lifestyles do not depend on them.

Not sure who wrote this piece of fluff, but they apparently didn't check to see how everyone else lives outside of the US without being tethered to their cars.

Looks like some elements of BS here. "Average daily income" figures given are based on GDP per capita, which has little to do with the average income of individual people. And Sweden doesn't pay $2.1 billion to subsidise oil, where on earth does that figure come from.

I hate to say it but living in a high rise with a large public/private parking garage in a very large city, and every morning seeing the count being about 50% SUV.. i hope it goes to 6 dollars a gallon. Its the entitlement mentality here which drives me up a wall. We think we are entitled to drive this un necessarily large vehicles holding one person inexpensively. Then we have the nerve to bitch when we cant do it. I would find the pain they have quite funny

Even a minor, no bodily harm accident can be expensive for an SUV driver. Insurance companies will charge a premium on these "moving wrecking balls".http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
60% of accidents involve no bodily harm what so ever. The other 40% can be mitigated. Afterall whether your in a prius or an expedition, wearing your seat belt will prevent you from sustaining bodily harm when you slide on ice and hit a tree.

Or are you suggesting that all accidents are multi vehicle head on collisions?

I saw this at the Telegraph website yesterday and wondered why ZH had not reposted it because they never miss a chance to remind us how lucky we are to have gasoline at $4 when it costs about half that to make. Far less than half when you do away with faux accounting practices that claim oil costs $92 a bbl to produce. It actually costs about 6 bucks to get out of the ground on a global average. Anyone that claims otherwise is padding the books rather seriously. The exception being deep sea exploration of course, but that accounts for a tiny fraction of production.

Every time I read these comparisons of price from nation to nation it pisses me off because they always claim it is the price of gas. It is not the price of gasoline at all which is roughly the same nearly everywhere once you strip out taxes and subsidies. Example, Norway the number one on the list has taxes of nearly $7 per gallon, while Venezuela pays for all by 9 cents per gallon for your gas when you fill up there. These are internal national choices and have NOTHING at all to do with the underlying price of petrol.

This is not a comparison of gas prices it is a comparison of tax policies.

Is everybody deaf? Israel is actively planning to attack Iran. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Just like we and the Russian managed to have a Mexican standoff for decades so could they. But noooooo. Screw up the whole region or maybe more, who knows? Gas prices over $6 or more here we come, thanks to the cocky Israelis and our stupid politicians that don't know how to tell them to stand down. Oh, I forgot. Just about every other white house advisor and lobbyist in DC are Jewish.

The issue in Amerika is not so much the price of a gallon of gas as a percentage of pre-tax income, it is that the housing bubble exasparted the suburban sprawl phenomenom and forced people to live farther and farther away from their jobs. As a result the absolute amount of dollars spent on gas is significant due to an increased average commute distance.

Example given would be someone spending $400 per month in gas to commute while making 40K per year. 40K per year equates to roughly 2K per month after taxes, ss, medicare, and other deductions, therefore one would be paying approx. 400/2000 = 20% of their after tax income on gasoline.

$400 gas spend can be roughly arrived at by driving 600 miles weekly at a price $4 per gallon with a 25 MPG vehicle

regardless. No matter how much we argue each case until we ditch the luv affair with large vehicles for no reason at all we have no right to bitch period. We in the aggregate are not entitled to one fucking thing. Then we wonder why people hate us as a collective society. Ditch the behemoths and then come to me with a complaint.

Agree. If you assume 15-20 mpg for a big pickup then obviously more money is spent on gas. It may be generous to assume 25 mpg for the average car on the road today, however I will let someone else research that and tweak the numbers.